Stealth Raiders by Lucas Jordan

Author:Lucas Jordan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia
Published: 2017-03-05T16:00:00+00:00

The following morning, 12 July, Lieutenant Francis Laracy and five stealth raiders of the 1st Battalion57 captured 28 more Germans, four machine guns and 250 yards of ground in a field on the extreme right flank of the 1st Division’s line. They reasoned ‘the rain would have the same effect as a barrage and drive Fritz to cover’.58 Their imagination paid off and as well as ‘scooping’ up unwary prisoners and their machine guns, they gathered booty that included automatic pistols, field glasses, belt buckles and German rum. Laracy directed the rest of his platoon to come forward and occupy the captured posts, then waited for ‘further instructions’.59 On hearing of this stealth raid the diggers mocked the British on their flank. One digger wrote, ‘[t]he Tommies next door just sat and watched. They had no orders to go out – our boys had no orders not to go out, just the difference.’60 The Australians thought the Tommies lacked initiative and aggression; they called the English battalion ‘sticky’, meaning hesitant to get out of their trenches and attack.61

By coincidence, Lieutenant Colonel C. H. Gurney, commanding officer of the 11th East Yorkshire Battalion – the Tommies who ‘sat and watched’ – visited Colonel Stacy’s headquarters at midday to discuss a formal raid the East Yorks had been ordered to do the next day. The objective was Tern Farm, a German strongpoint overlooking the field where Laracy’s men were. Stacy told the British colonel that four of his Australians had already advanced and captured 28 Germans near Tern Farm that morning. Stacy urged Gurney ‘to press on immediately and exploit the success’ using stealth-raiding tactics, without artillery, and not wait for orders the next day.62 Gurney agreed, admitting afterwards that he ‘was somewhat anxious [and] wondered what on earth higher authority would say if this unusual warfare didn’t come off’.63 Stacy guaranteed that his Australians would cooperate with patrols from north and north east of Tern Farm.64 Zero hour was arranged for 2.30 pm.

The Australians were keen and broke out into the fields 15 minutes before the agreed time. It took ten minutes before the East Yorks realised what had happened and sent out their patrols, but the Australians had run into considerable resistance. Laracy’s 5 Platoon advanced – at less than half-strength, with probably no more than a dozen men with two Lewis guns – while seven men also advanced from the platoon to Laracy’s left.65 Machine gunners on a track by the Plate Becque fired on them and one man was killed.66 Laracy’s platoon ran into fire from posts in the fields in front of them; two men who had excelled in the stealth raids of the previous day were called up to take on the machine-gun post. The two outflanked the post and cut the garrison off, and the Germans raised their hands to surrender. When the Australians exposed themselves to take them prisoner, a German officer in another post ordered the would-be prisoners to fight. They opened fire.

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